Wini sat down in the practice room and closed his eyes, the spirit stone resting in his palm.

  “Okay,” he thought, “let’s focus on distributing the energy equally into all the paths that are still blocked. Once I open all the energy paths, I’ll be able to breakthrough to the Communication Realm with the energy from the spirit stone.”

  In the central tower, Mirai checked the monitoring array. “Headmaster, I think around six hundred students have already started their attempt to break through.”

  “Of course,” Rainor said. “The remaining students will also start at any moment. But that excitement won’t last long if they are not careful.”

  He looked out toward the dorms.

  “To break through to the Communication Realm, they have to empty the energy core that was created during Awakening,” Rainor explained. “Emptying the core means distributing all the energy from their core into all the energy paths that are already open. Once the core becomes empty, they can extract energy from the spirit stone and store it into that empty core. After that, they must slowly connect and combine the new energy in the core with the earlier distributed energy that is running through all the energy paths in the body. That is when they truly reach the Communication Realm.”

  He paused for a moment.

  “But if they are able to open all the remaining energy paths before they use the spirit stone to store energy inside the core,” Rainor continued, “their potential and growth will increase greatly. It’s almost like getting a guaranteed chance to reach the Ascension Realm in the future. However, that kind of foundation is seen in only around ten percent of people in the world.”

  “The problem,” he added, “is that some awakeners can’t connect all their energy paths in a single attempt. They have to repeat this process many times—sometimes close to a hundred—before they finally succeed in breaking through to the Communication Realm.”

  “There is nothing we can do about their lack of visualization and understanding, Rainor,” Robert said. “The world they’ll face outside is too harsh. If they can’t even cross this border in cultivation, they’d better stay in the lower realm and live a common life, for the greater good.”

  “You are correct, Sir Robert,” Rainor admitted. “Maybe I was being too skeptical about their future.”

  Ramyas leaned slightly forward. “Oh, Rainor, look. It seems your top student has already started his breakthrough.”

  “Can you stop probing their meditation?” Rainor said. “It might affect their breakthrough if their soul energy is sensitive to the surroundings—especially for unique souls.”

  “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry so much,” Ramyas said. “Aren’t they using mid?grade spirit stones with special inscriptions exactly to prevent this kind of interference?”

  “That is true,” Rainor replied. “I’m just saying, if you try to probe a soul we don’t know anything about, it might backfire.”

  “Okay, understood,” Ramyas said.

  Evan glanced at Rainor. “Rainor, from what rank do unique souls start when they awaken?”

  “Like you all already know,” Rainor said, “all common?grade souls start from F?rank.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Medium?grade souls awaken at least at E?rank, based on their true thoughts during Awakening.

  Rare?grade souls awaken at least at D?rank, based on their understanding during Awakening.

  As for unique?grade souls, the lowest rank recorded at Awakening is C?rank, and the highest seen till now is only B?rank.”

  “Is that the reason that student’s soul energy is flowing like that?” Kaigal asked.

  “That shouldn’t be the case,” Robert said, narrowing his eyes. “If the rank of a soul is high, then the quality of their soul energy becomes better. It should be more condensed than anyone else’s. What we’re seeing now doesn’t look like condensed soul energy… Is that, by any chance, energy from a spirit stone? But that much energy…?”

  “Yes, Sir Robert,” Rainor said slowly. “I think that is the case.”

  “But is he releasing all the energy of that mid?grade spirit stone outside instead of absorbing it into his core?” Kaigal asked in disbelief.

  “If he does that, it will be very hard to break through,” Ramyas said. “Is he out of his mind? I thought we lost a genius and was upset, but now it looks like… it might actually be a good thing.”

  “Don’t come to conclusions this early, Miss Ramyas,” Evan said.

  He spoke in a way that made it sound like he knew something, but he kept his expression neutral, as if he was only advising her to wait and see.

  All the instructors continued to watch in silence.

  Five minutes passed just like that. Then everyone felt a sudden outburst of energy from the direction where Wini was meditating. The energy around him started to rise sharply, becoming denser and more focused.

  Every instructor was shocked.

  “What just happened?” Ramyas asked. “What is that purplish light surrounding Winay? Did he already succeed in breaking through? How did he reach the Communication Realm this quickly, even after wasting most of the energy from the spirit stone?”

  Actually, everyone except Evan had the same question.

  “Headmaster,” Mirai said, stepping forward, “there is one report I just received about the spirit stone distribution…”

  “It’s okay, Miss Mirai, that is not important now. I can check it later,” Rainor said—then stopped, a thought flashing through his mind.

  What is important is what is happening there, even after he wasted that much spirit stone energy… Wait. Spirit stone?

  “Miss Mirai,” he said again, “give me the report on spirit stone distribution.”

  “Yes, Headmaster,” Mirai replied. “Total mid?grade spirit stones distributed are eight hundred ninety?nine, and one student has taken a top?grade spirit stone for breakthrough.”

  “What?” Rainor said. “Wait… don’t tell me that is Winay Hecksopian…”

  “Let me check,” Mirai said, quickly scanning the list. “Actually… it really is him, Headmaster.”

  “Incredible,” Robert said, laughing. “Hahaha. For many people, it is hard enough to use a mid?grade spirit stone to break through. But he took a top?grade spirit stone, which has ten times the spirit energy of a mid?grade stone. Normally, unless you are confident you can open all the energy paths throughout your body, it is not recommended to use a top?grade spirit stone for breakthrough. But this student, Winay, didn’t just succeed in it—he has already absorbed half of that energy into his core. That is truly incredible.”

  At the same time, a white light bloomed from the direction of the girls’ dorms. The instructors’ gazes shifted.

  “Oh, that’s Aashna, right?” Ramyas said. “And—oh, one more breakthrough near her, and the energy feels even purer. This time it’s Aarna.”

  “I heard you tried to poach them even after they selected Frontwall Academy,” Kaigal said with a grin. “Did you succeed, Ramyas? Hahaha.”

  “It’s not like I was the only one who did that…” Ramyas muttered.

  Kaigal just laughed and continued watching.

  A greenish light appeared near the last two breakthroughs—Oscherin. Then a bluish glow lit up the sky when Gonad succeeded. Crystal?bright light, dark shadow?like soul energy, yellow rule?inscription energy—one after another, different lights appeared as more students broke through to the Communication Realm.

  Time passed, and dawn approached.

  By then, two hundred and eleven students had succeeded in breaking through. That number made the instructors a little happy; the pool of potential candidates had clearly increased.

  But what shocked them was that Wini was still meditating, even though everyone else had already gone to rest after their breakthrough.

  “Why is he still meditating…?” Ramyas murmured.

  See you in the next chapter.